AAG Enhancing Diversity Award

Deadline September 15, annually

The AAG Enhancing Diversity Award honors those geographers who have pioneered efforts toward or actively participated in efforts toward encouraging a more diverse discipline over the course of several years. The award is presented at the Awards Luncheon during the AAG's Annual Meeting.

Criteria: Individuals are eligible, regardless of their status as AAG members.

Nominations: To make nominations for the Enhancing Diversity Award, include the complete name and address of the nominee and a concise (500 words maximum) yet specific description of the accomplishments that warrant the nominee’s selection. Digital submissions are encouraged. Send nominations to grantsawards@aag.org with AAG Enhancing Diversity Award as the subject line. Alternately, nominations can be sent to: Association of American Geographers, attn: AAG Enhancing Diversity Award, 1710 Sixteenth Street NW, Washington, DC 20009-3198.

2015Wendy Jepson keenly understands the importance of increasing diversity in our discipline. In her role as Chair of the Texas A&M University Faculty Senate Committee on Diversity, she has contributed to diversifying both faculty and student bodies at this institution. As Director of Undergraduate Education in her department, she is spearheading a renewed recruiting effort to bring in diverse students. Jepson also works closely as a mentor to students who are the first in their family to attend college, and also their parents. She has been an active and tireless participant in efforts to achieve excellence through equality and inclusion.

2014Jay T. Johnson, Renee Pualani Louis, Laura Smith, Zoltan Grossman, Douglas (RDK) Herman are recognized for working to expand the presence and participation of indigenous peoples in the AAG, and geography more broadly, through visionary leadership in the association, academia, and beyond. They have worked collectively over many years of collaboration through the AAG Indigenous Peoples Specialty Group. Their efforts have led to increased number of Native American, Alaskan Native and Native Hawaiians participating in the AAG. The number of members of the IPSG have doubled under their leadership. They have organized many valuable activities and sessions and plenaries, attracting greater participation in our annual meetings, including enriching the meeting program with speakers like the late Vine Deloria, Jr., Winona LaDuke, and Dr. Daniel Wildcat. In recognizing these geographers together, the committee is also acknowledging teamwork and long-term partnerships as an important part for enhancing diversity in the discipline.

2012Laura Pulidofor her research on how various groups experience racial and class oppression, how these experiences differ among particular communities of color, and how they mobilize to create a more socially-just world. She also worked to complete several projects left by her recently deceased friend and colleague, Clyde Woods, whom was also honored. She is a professor of American studies and ethnicity at the University of Southern California.

The late Clyde Woods for developing a one-of-a-kind research program engaging social and public policy issues by examining the cultural practices of those oppressed by such policies. His book, Development Arrested, was highly acclaimed and a model of interdisciplinary research. Woods will be remembered as an important mentor to many, and as a public intellectual challenging how we understand race and human geographic knowledge production.

2011
Rickie Sanders in recognition of her longstanding contributions to supporting students who are underrepresented in geography to enter into the profession at all levels of training and to prepare them to be exceptional professionals.

2010
Laurence G. Wolf for his pioneering efforts to advocate for inclusion,
particularly related to sexual identity and differences in ableness, and in the domains of geographic research and publications on issues of diversity in the discipline and in society.

2009
John Frazier for his accomplishments in creating an environment where geographers make matters of race and ethnicity a priority in their classrooms and research, and for demonstrating and practicing effective models for inclusion and broadening participation in the discipline and beyond.

Glen Elder for his empirically grounded and theoretically sophisticated scholarship at the intersections of gender, race, sexuality, class, culture, and place; for his ardent voice for the marginalized, the dominated, and the less powerful; for making significant contributions to the fields of Gender Studies, Queer Studies, African Studies, and Political and Urban Geography; and for his deep and lifelong commitment to social justice and practices of broad inclusion.

2008Reginald Golledge for his long-standing efforts to support and mentor underrepresented students in higher education, particularly for his attention to those with disabilities, and in recognition of his excellence in scholarship discovering ways to allow disabled people to become fully integrated into their communities around the world.

2007Jacquelyn Beyer for her work to establish nondiscrimination and monitoring of the status of women and minorities within the association, for her promotion of research on lesbian and gay communities, and for her introduction of scholarship on women into the university geography curriculum, among her other pioneering efforts and advocacy for women within the profession and discipline of geography.

Janice Jones Monk for her many and incomparable personal, professional, and scholarly contributions to promoting and enhancing diversity in our society, our discipline, and our association over her illustrious career as a geographer.

2006Joe Darden for being a stellar personal and professional role model, a national leader for promoting diversity in universities, and a champion for the greater inclusion of minority groups into our society and the discipline of geography.

2005Don Deskins for his pioneering leadership toward enhancing diversity within geography particularly through serving as the founding Director of the AAG Commission on Geography and Afro-America; for his support of faculty from predominantly Black colleges and universities, and many other tangible and intangible benefits of his deep devotion and dedicated leadership in promoting diversity in geography.

Saul Cohen for being one of the strongest and most vocal supporters of early diversity activities within the AAG, for his initiation of numerous activities designed to increase the enrollment of Black students in geography, and for his role as major advocate for diversifying the discipline, fundraiser for diversity activities, and mentor to young students and professionals, helping to establish and grow a new generation of African- American geographers.